Rafael Chirbes, architect of words – Herald Tribune

 No predictable battle as you fight to the death; however, there are men who manage to immortalize his name throughout history, as in the case of the Spanish writer Rafael Chirbes, who died yesterday morning at 66 years of age product of a detected lung cancer last Monday.

 

 Chirbes, whose light and neat prose earned him many awards, is considered one of the greats of contemporary Spanish literature by direct style that portrayed the Spain in crisis, disorder and chaos of the social and political context. “My soul is the soul of the time in which I live,” he said once about his poetic way of writing, “I can not write great things, and it does not interest me. This does not mean that is realistic in the strict sense. Any book that helps you know the reality is useless. Aesthetics is a meeting place where the word enlightens you. Aesthetics for aesthetics will not do. I walk in the dark and groping. “

 

 Rafael, novelist, critic and journalist, was some months ago in Portugal and other cities to promote their books; also in Madrid he had been in the presentation of his colleague Sara table, so his death caused great surprise among his closest friends and among his faithful followers.

 

 The remains of the famous writer are veiled in the morgue of the Alicante town of Denia from which will be brought to incineration.

 

 Catharsis narrative

 “To me what interests me is to better understand what I live, what I see. And I want the reader up the same climb Mount Calvary that I when I write. Why should it be otherwise? Why should I compromise? “Were the words of Chirbes judgmental about the treatment of his stories, a practice that accompanies it from its primitive literary lines.

 

 His first novel Mimoun (1988) was a finalist Herralde Novel Award and was well received by critics, then came the titles in the final fight (1991), Good handwriting (1992) and shooting the Hunter (1994), announcing and the vast repertoire that would be staffed his pen.

 

 It began with The Long March (1996), awarded in Germany with the SWR / Die Bestenliste Prize, a trilogy about the Spanish society since the war until the Transition, which continued with the fall of Madrid (200), a book for which he received Award Literary Criticism Valencia and ends this cycle with old friends (2003).

 With Crematorium (2007), a novel about the political and moral evolution of a generation, received the Pen Book of the Year Award and the Critics Award Narrative in 2008.

 However, his best known work was in the bank (2013), a work that broke the narrative silence of 6 years, this was considered the best book of the year by the three major newspapers in Spain and earned him the National Award for Fiction in 2014, awarded by the Ministry of Culture. The work elapses in the quagmire of Olba a rotting where everyone throws their garbage, metaphorical symbol that refracts the current problems of Spain.

 

 Chirbes, born in the Valencian town of Taverner of Valldigna, reflected in his writings disorder and chaos with great care of language and structure. It is why the legacy and weight of his word among his works will survive. “Literature dies when literature is nothing. Each new novel new language “words that the author met in full.